Cancer patients to benefit from new forms of personalised drug treatments that
could revolutionise the way NHS treats the disease

Cancer patients will be offered new drugs targeted to the specific genetic profile of their disease within ten years following research that promises to revolutionise the way tumours are treated.

In a groundbreaking new venture, the NHS, Cancer Research UK and pharmaceutical companies are joining together to offer all cancer patients experimental new drugs that are honed to the specific genetics of their tumours.

It is predicted to turn some the biggest cancer killers into long-term manageable diseases.

The project will begin this summer for patients with advanced lung cancer, which kills 35,000 people in Britain a year and has one of the worst survival rates of all cancers.

It will be extended to patients with breast, prostate and colorectal cancers within two years and 'will become mainstream in most cancers within five to ten years', Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, told the Telegraph.

The scheme will allow patients diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer to have a full genetic analysis conducted on their specific form of the cancer.

They will then quickly be offered one of 12 drugs available from AstraZeneca and Pfizer that targets the abnormal genes in their tumour.

Menelas Pangalos, Executive Vice President of Innovative Medicines and Early Development at AstraZeneca, said there were already 'phenomenal response rates' with some of these new drugs.

He added: "We expect that within the next decade we will see some of these tumour types becoming chronic diseases where we can offer a sequence of therapies to prolong life."

As the project continues it is expected that other drug companies will be able to offer their new medicines.

The 12 existing drugs in the trial are known to target at least one of 21 established genetic abnormalities found in lung cancer.

This means that patients diagnosed with lung cancer have a one in two chance of being included in the trial to receive a genetically targeted drug.

The remainder will be offered immunotherapy which stimulates the body's own immune system to fight their cancer.

Up until now it has been almost impossible for the drug companies to find enough patients with the same very rare genetic abnormalities in their cancers to run ordinary large scale trials.

But by offering detailed tests to every patient diagnosed with lung cancer within the NHS and matching them immediately to the new drugs, patients will be offered new medicines far quicker.

In most cases cancer is treated with blanket drugs which are the same for all patients but more are coming online that target specific aspects of the specific tumour meaning they are more effective and patients suffer fewer side effects.

Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK’s chief clinician, said: “The exciting progress we’ve made in understanding how cancers develop gives us hope that specifically targeting faults within patients’ tumours could revolutionise medicine in the next decade."

Experts said that Britain was in a unique position to lead the world in this research because of the comprehensive and standardised systems within the NHS.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “By investing £11.5 million a day into research and development for the life sciences we have made this country one of the best places in the world to carry out and invest in clinical trials, which has made ground-breaking programmes like this possible.

"Cancer Research UK’s Stratified Medicine Programme will see top scientists work with industry and the NHS to collaborate on innovative, life-saving research, and I look forward to the benefits this will bring for cancer patients and their families.”